


Help Me Close My Eyes

by calysto1395



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: AU, Gen, medium!nico
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-14
Updated: 2014-02-14
Packaged: 2018-01-12 10:20:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1185119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calysto1395/pseuds/calysto1395
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You want me to believe that your brother, the boy who was obsessed with Mythomagic when he was like, ten, can see and talk to ghosts?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Help Me Close My Eyes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sexybritishllama](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=sexybritishllama).



> For the Jasico Valentine's Day Event   
> This work is for the user sexybritishllama

"A medium?!" Detective Percy exclaimed and nearly chocked on his pepsi.  
"Well, he doesn't exactly call himself that but yes." Hazel replied sheepish. She tucked a strand of her curly hair coyly behind her ear and stared at the extremely interesting tabletop in front of her. 

"You want me to believe that your brother, the boy who was obsessed with Mythomagic when he was like, ten, can see and talk to ghosts?" He asked disbelieving as Hazel continued to evade his gaze. She shrugged in response.

"She wouldn't have bought it up if she didn't think it was a good idea." Was what his partner  
Detective Jason Grace, who had been sitting quietly in the corner of their tiny office the whole time, threw in. He also shrugged when Percy gave him a long look. "It's not like we haven't tried everything else."

Sadly, Percy had to agree.

A few days ago the remains of Zoe Nightshade, a young girl that had disappeared almost 20 years ago, had been found by two joggers and their dog. They hadn't been able to determine her cause or exact time or date of death, nor had they any idea who could have done it besides the usual suspects, such as closest family and friends. The place her body had been found had been far away from home, her bones were mostly intact and didn't show any signs of blunt force or cuts and any kind of poisons were hard to prove twenty years later. Or so Annabeth, his fiancée and the local coroner, had told him with heavy eye rolling.

They really had a big, fat nothing to go off but Percy was quite sceptical.

"It can't be more of a waste of time then sitting around here, doing nothing." Jason told him and stood to grab his jacket.

Hazel lifted her head to smile brightly at him, which was when Percy knew he had lost.  
He threw his hands in the air. "Whatever." And also reached for his coat.

-

The garage was filled with extremely loud playing techno that worked weirdly well together with the sounds of a hammer hitting on metal repeatedly. The whole room was clustered with car in various stages of completion and a few disassembled kitchen appliances that were beyond recognition of what they used to be. Amid of the chaos knelt a impish looking guy with dark curly hair, oil stains all over his face with a hammer in his hand. He nodded along to the music while working on something that probably was going to be an autobody in the future. The whole thing looked everything but professional. 

Both Jason and Percy watched with interest as Hazel strut through the room, as if out of habit, to the opposite wall to shut off the music player. 

It took the mechanic a few seconds to notice the change before he dropped the hammer on the stone floor with emphasis and turned around.

"Goddamnit di Angelo! How often do I have to tell you, not to turn my music -?" He cut himself of when he saw Hazel waving at him with one of her gentle smiles. 

"Hey Leo." She greeted him and the guy ran towards her. He tackled her in an embrace and lifted her off her feet which made Hazel giggle. 

"Miss Levesque, the love of my life! Where have you been?" Leo - apparently - sat her back on the ground and kissed both her cheeks.

"I though Hazel was married." Jason heard Percy whisper in his ear and he could only shrug in response. Their colleague was indeed married to Frank Zhang, nice guy if a bit too nervous for Jason, he had met him only once but he and Hazel seemed happy enough together. He was almost sure that they also had a child.

Hazel dragged the guy over to them and introduced him. "This is Leo Valdez. Leo, my co-workers, Percy Jackson and Jason Grace." 

Leo grinned mischievously at them. "Jason, huh? Is your car named Argo?" He snorted, laughing at his own joke. Hazel roller her eyes fondly at it, as if she was used to it. 

"Is Nico in the office?", she asked finally without giving Jason the chance to reply. 

"Where else would the little creep be? Did he do something? Murder somebody?" Leo leaned into their personal space, mock serious expression on his face, then he turned abruptly around and spread his arms. Hazel followed him and motioned for them to do the same. 

"We have a new deal. I keep out of his flat and he keeps out of my workshop." Leo explained and turned into a small corridor. 

Hazel, who had fallen into step with him, raised her eyebrow in question. "Does it work?" 

Leo snorted again. "Yeah, right. How about no. But one can dream right?" He grinned at Jason and Percy, that were walking behind them. He stopped at a simple white door with a small milky white window that had the word 'OFFICE' in black block letters written on it. 

"There you go. Lion's den.", he kissed Hazel's cheek again and gave Percy and Jason a two finger salute. "Gentlemen." Then Leo took off again, the way they came. 

Hazel rose her hand to knock on the door but stopped herself, her hand still raised. She faced the two on them, worrying her lower lip between her teeth. "He is really not that bad. But he can be a bit... difficult towards strangers. Don't take it personally.", was all she said before knocking and entering the office. 

The room itself looked like any other office Jason had ever been to. A couple of desks, cluttered with papers and notes. A few computers and telephones, boring half-dried plants and some cheesy calendar on one of the walls. 

From behind on of the two computers sat a young man, who looked young enough to be in his teen. Dark, shaggy hair that was in need of a haircut hung him in his face. His skin was just almost sickly pale, not helped by the black clothing he wore. Thick rings under his eyes told tales of long sleepless nights and his mouth was set in a grim line. He eyed them suspiciously when they entered even as Hazel walked around the desk to greet him. 

"Guys, meet my bother Nico di Angelo. Nico, these are-" She started but he interrupted her. 

"We've met." He told them. His voice had a hint of an accent Jason couldn't place and sounded so bored and uninterested that it was hard to believe it was supposed to be sincere. 

"We did?" Percy asked and scratched the back of his head in thought. 

Nico turned his gaze back to the monitor in front of him and started typing something. "Captain Ramírez-Arellano birthday party last year. Jackson was drunk and threw me in a pool." 

Jason wondered for a second how his sister could even met someone like Nico but then decided to just accept that his sister was always going to be a mystery to him.  
He glanced over at Percy who looked thoughtful as if he was trying to remember the actual party. 

"I'm sure he is very sorry about that." Hazel told them with a dangerous tone to her voice that failed to rip Percy out of his thoughts, so Jason elbowed him in the rips. "Err, yeah sure." 

Nico took a deep breath and rolled his eyes. "So, what do you want?" 

Percy immediately took the floor. "We are investigating the case of Zoe Nightshade and have run into a dead end. Your sister suggested your help." 

Jason watched Nico shoot Hazel a betrayed look under which she cowered. The young man looked down at his hands, which had stilled on top of the old keyboard. 

"I don't know how I would be able to help." He replied in a tiny voice. His whole body language shifted from offensive to defensive and Jason could already see this battle lost. 

"Brother..." Hazel laid a hand on his arm and the weight of it seemed to crush Nico. 

He shook his head. "No. I'm sorry. Leave." Hazel sighed sadly but retreated and moved towards the door.

"Hey! We didn't drive all this way just to leave like this." Percy shouted out before either Jason or Hazel could stop him. 

Nico looked at them and every warmth had disappeared out of his eyes. Instead they seemed to burn with a mad light that send eerie shivers down Jason's spine. "I said, leave." His voice turned Jason's blood to ice. 

They left. 

-

"I'm really sorry about that." Hazel admitted sheepishly. "I should probably talked with him alone first." 

"It's not your fault. It was worth a shot." Jason told her in what he hoped was a reassuring voice from where he sat at his desk. He was going over the reports from twenty years ago and hoped to find something. Anything really. That one clue that everyone had overlooked. He just had to. Zoe Nightshade had been so young, talented archer already and had a lot of friends only to end up buried in a ditch in some forest.

"Maybe we should just talk to him again." Percy said while playing with a baseball he had gotten from Annabeth last year. He always said it was relaxing to throw it in the air and helped him think though Annabeth was doubtful or that. 

Hazel pulled a worried face. "I don't think that's a good idea. Let's give him some time to think about it?" She pondered. 

Percy waved her off. "It's been like, two hours. That's enough time to think about something." He jumped up from his seat, fueled by excited energy and put the baseball back on the table, which it instantly rolled down from. "Let's head back to the garage, come on." 

"He won't be there anymore." Hazel stated, more to herself than anything. "It's the second of the month. He always eats lunch with our father at The Olymp on the second." As soon as she had uttered the words she slapped her hand over her mouth. 

"Awesome." Was all Percy said before walking out of the door. 

"No Percy wait!" Hazel shouted after him in vain. 

Jason sighed heavily and followed Percy. "We better make sure that doesn't end in bloodshed." Hazel looked positively miserable and raked her hand through her thick, curly hair. 

"Nico is going to be so mad at me.", she muttered and Jason could not reassure her of the opposite. 

-

The Olymp was quite a misleading name for a restaurant that didn't actually serve any greek food, Jason though when they arrived. It was also very fancy. Way out of the league for his paycheck which begged the question on how wealthy Hazel's and Nico's father really was. With his daughter working as a cop and his son as an office clerk it didn't appear to be likely that the man would be more than middle class. 

Jason had to realize he was obviously mistaken. 

It wasn't hard to spot Nico with his general dark appearance in between the white and blue decoration of the restaurant accomplished by a tall man. He couldn't have been taller than maybe 5'9'' but the way he held himself gave of the illusion that he towered over the whole room. Several members of the staff where busy catering to his every wish and need, bringing different bottles of wine or side dishes whenever he felt like it. His voice was loud enough to bother the other guests who didn't dare to speak up and served at a complete contrast to Nico, who sat there quietly with his head down. 

It was hard to see him like that, Jason thought. Even though he hardly knew the guy, Nico's whole posture reminded him of too many victims who were afraid to utter one too loud word. 

Hazel grabbed both his and Percy's arm before they could interrupt father and son during their meal. 

"Let me talk, alright? Our father is... a difficult man. He and my brother have their difficulties." She looked openly concerned, enough to get Percy to nod and let her go first. 

They probably made the impression of being Hazel's bodyguards as they made their way over to the best table, that offered room for six people instead of two. 

Hazel's father saw them and gave them a huge, fake smile. 

"My dear daughter! How lovely of you to join us. Your brother has been incredibly dull as usual." He called and gestured for them to sit. 

Jason watched Nico take a deep breath but otherwise not react whatsoever on the comment except for rising his head to take in the new company. When he noticed Jason and Percy behind Hazel his eyes widened in slight panic before they morphed into betrayal that he directed at his sister. 

She only gave a pained smile. "No thank you father. We are here to talk to Nico actually for just a short moment." 

But her father shook his head and gestured for the waiters. "Nonsense. Sit down, eat. My treat." 

Hazel hesitated before pulling up a chair next to her brother while Jason and Percy exchanged a look. The latter only shrugged and took a seat himself. Jason just gave an apologetic smile towards Nico, which he ignored. 

"What brings you here? Shouldn't you be working?" Hazel's father took a huge swig out of a wine glass and then pulled a face. One of the waiters bought him another bottle of wine and poured him a glass without being prompted. 

"We are actually." Percy said. "Your son is helping us with a case."

Hazel glared at him but her father only laughed. It was a terrible sound, loud and obnoxious. Barking and cold that made Jason uncomfortable just listening to it, without taking into account how his whole body shook with it.

"Right.", he laughed after he calmed down a bit. "And how would my useless son be of any service? You should have met my other daughter, Bianca, she was promising. Too bad she bit it." Any appetite Jason might have had for all the delicious looking food brought to him disappeared, replaced by nausea. Both Hazel and Nico seemed used to these kind of comments. 

"Well, Mr. di Angelo-" Jason started but was interrupted.

"Oh please. That's his mothers name. You may call me Hades." Their father raised his glass as if to make a toast to himself. 

"Hades? You parents must have had a sense of humor." Percy snorted and took a bite of the steak the staff had given him. Cooked to perfection and probably amazingly seasoned too.

"As did yours, I suppose, Perseus Jackson." Percy frowned at the usage of his full name. It was pretty much an open secret back at work but literally nobody ever called him Perseus. 

"Oh don't look so puzzled. I inform myself of all my children's associates. Nobody can say I don't care for my offspring." He insisted smugly and took another sip. "At least you are better than that delinquent my son decided to start a business with. Leo Valdez has a history with arson but does he care? No of course not. No, my son only wants my money, not my well-intended advice, oh I could burst with pride." Hades voice dripped in sarcasm as he chuckled the end of his sentence. 

Nico's hand's tightened on his cutlery, turning his knuckles white. He sat them down silently and folded his hands in his lap. Jason watched Hazel place her own hand on top of her brothers' under the table and wished them all to be anywhere else but here right now. 

"We wanted to ask brother to help us by using his gift, father." Hazel explained, like one would to a child. Their father didn't seem to different from one after all. "Please don't", Jason heard Nico whisper softly to his sister and he didn't even have time to wonder why.

Hades hand nearly cracked the glass in his hand and his gaze darkened. His eyes had the same expression Nico's had had earlier in the garage, only a hundred times worse. Jason was glad it was not aimed at him because he imagined it to burn like the desert sun after a decade of drought. Disdain and condescendence was so palpable in the air around them that he wanted to choke on it. 

"I thought we had thankfully gotten through that ridiculous phase of his. I thought I was clear that you were not to encourage his irrational behaviour, Hazel." 

She gulped but held his gaze. "I believe him, father." 

They held a silent stare off which Hades broke first to raise up from his seat. 

"If you want to indulge this kind of nonsense, I do not wish to witness it. Gentlemen." He nodded at Percy and Jason, placed a roll of cash on the table and left, the waiters rushing after him to give him his coat and something wrapped inside aluminium foil shaped like a swan, probably a fancy desert.

Hazel sighed deeply, looking like a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

"I am so sorry, Nico." She muttered and her brother only shrugged. He didn't appear any worse for wear than earlier now that his father was gone.

"That was my fault. I'm sorry too." Percy stated guiltily and again Nico shrugged. "Whatever.", he replied.

The young man raked a hand through his hair, quite similar as Hazel did when she was frustrated and leaned back at his chair, defeated.

"I'll help you, under one condition." Nico finally told them. 

"Name it." Hazel responded eagerly. 

"I am not going to testify in court. I'll talk to... whoever I must to get you lead but that's it. I've had enough public humiliation to last for at least a month." At his remark Jason looked around the restaurant. A couple of heads turned around, as if they had never been observing the scene at all, some people didn't even bother enough to pretend that much. 

"Deal." Percy decided and took another bite out of his steak.

\- 

They took of for the morgue, ready to meet up with Annabeth who would show them Zoe's remains. 

According to Nico, the ghosts of people who died suddenly, due to murder or accidents usually, were bound to their bodies, unable to leave them behind. Percy had snorted out an 'of course they are' which was enough to shut Nico up for the rest of the car ride and had Hazel glare daggers at the back of his neck all the way into the sterile building. 

Jason didn't mind the morgue as much as other police officers. Seeing a corpse was never a nice experience of course but he appreciated the work Annabeth and the other coroners did to help them solve cases so he had never been able to associate the creepiness other people complained about to the place. 

Annabeth certainly didn't either. She was completely at ease when she greeted them, if a little bit annoyed at staying overtime for her fiancée. Percy greeted her with a kiss that had Hazel blushing and Nico rolling his eyes before Annabeth led them to room in the back where she did her work. 

The bones of Zoe Nightshade already laid on the table in the middle of the room but Nico didn't approach them. He took a few steps onto the tiled floor and looked around as if he was scanning a crowd. 

Annabeth and Percy kept back and leaned at the wall next to the entrance. She looked a bit sceptical with her arms crossed but still curious, while Percy mimicked her watching Nico do his thing. Hazel had one hand on Jason's arm as if to hold him back, obviously familiar with it. 

"Zoe?" Nico asked and waited a few seconds. "Did she have dark hair in a ponytail and a grey jacket?" He inquired at Hazel, who nodded. Jason felt his eyebrows climb up to his hairline. They had indeed found with Zoe's bones grey scraps of what Annabeth had identified as fleece that could have come from a jacket, like the one Zoe had been described to have worn the day she disappeared by her father. 

Nico turned his attention back to what seemed like nothing to them and reached out with his hand. 

"Zoe, you have to tell me what happened to you." His voice was gentle and soft, something Jason would have never associated with the grumpy person they had met. Percy watched still disbelieving as Nico nodded along to a conversation they couldn't hear while Annabeth appeared more and more interested. 

"Do you remember what they looked like?" Nico asked, sounding a little desperate. It was only then that Jason noticed a bruise forming at Nico's wrist. The one he had held out to no one. 

"What?" Jason wondered and took a step forward only to be stopped by Hazel's hand. 

"That's how it always is." She stated but didn't look to happy about that. 

The bruise on Nico's skin had already darkened to a deep shade of purple and formed the perfect imprint of a small hand gripping his arm. It had appeared out of no where and it certainly was no trick of light, that much Jason was sure about.

"Thank you, Zoe. We'll do what we can." Nico finally told whomever and withdrew his hand. Hazel let go of Jason and embraced her brother immediately and escorted him out of the room into the hall, followed by a thoughtful Annabeth and two puzzled police officers. 

As soon as the door had shut behind them Nico turned to them. 

"She doesn't remember who did it. Probably because it was so long ago.", he frowned and rubbed his wrist absently. "She remembers falling onto a wooden floor and someone tall carrying her to a car. That's about it." 

"Wow, that was real helpful." Percy groaned and earned a slap from Annabeth to the arm. 

Nico glared at him too. "I apologise for the dead girl that can't remember who murdered her. My bad." 

"He didn't mean it like that. It's just been a long day." Hazel placed a hand on his shoulder soothingly and gave her brother a smile after glaring at Percy some more. 

Nico pinched the bridge of his nose. "I could try going to where she was buried. Some ghosts linger at places. One of them might have seen something." He offered and then shrugged as if it wasn't really worth a shot.

"Let's do that tomorrow. We could all use a good night's rest." Jason threw in with a good look at Nico. He doubted that the rings under his eyes could be cured with one night's rest but it was worth a try. Percy certainly needed it, judging from how he had behaved all evening. 

Hazel nodded. "Good idea. Okay, Nico?" Her brother just nodded quietly, watching Jason out of the corner of his eye. "Would you give us a ride Jason?" She requested which of course he didn't mind. Both the garage, where according to Hazel was right under Nico's home and her own apartment where on his way home anyway.

"Come on, Seaweed Brain. Your turn to cook dinner." Annabeth interlocked her arm with Percy's and led him out. 

-

The ride was mostly quiet until they dropped off Hazel, that pressed a kiss to her brothers forehead and whispered something in his ear that Jason couldn't make out before bidding them goodbye. 

"So.", Jason started. "You are the real deal." He hated himself for phrasing the sentence that way but now that it was out there was no going back.

"I guess." Nico avoided eye contact by looking out of the window, watching trees and buildings zip past.

"Have you always been able to see them?" He questioned. 

"Why do you care?" Nico sounded bored but Jason could make out a defensive tone underneath it. 

So he played it nonchalant. "Just curious." and didn't press further. They drove a couple of miles before Nico continued on his own.

"It's hard to tell when it started. They used to look like normal people to me when I was a child." 

"How did you learn to tell a difference?" 

"My sister died and I knew she shouldn't be still around but she was. So I learned the difference." He crossed his arms in front of his chest, making himself smaller in the seat than he already appeared to be.

Jason decided it was probably wisest to change the subject.

"If some ghosts cling to places, do some cling to living people too?" 

Nico nodded. "Often. Usually when their last though was of that particular person they follow around later." He turned his gaze to Jason, flicked shortly to the empty backseat and then back at him. 

"Your mother follows you." He said.

Jason was glad that they were standing at a red light, when he felt his hands jerk at the wheel. He head shot around to look at Nico who avoided him again. 

"Car accident right? She keeps telling she is sorry for giving you away when you were little. She couldn't take care of two children and keep up her career. She regrets it.", Nico stated impassively, as if he was reciting something he'd learned by heart. 

And Jason. Was too shocked to respond. 

His mother had been a not too famous actress, she had his sister Thalia early and a few years after that Jason. He stayed with her for two years before she gave him to her cousin Lupa, who had raised him from then on. Lupa had never lied to him about where he came from or who she was to him. She was never a mother and he was to never expect of her to be one. He only met his sister as a teenager, when he got up the nerve to finally face his mother, who died a few days after. Driving her car under influence in a rain storm. He hadn't even felt sad about it. Jason had been fairly certain he did absolutely not care for his mother or what she had done until this very moment. 

The moment someone told him she was sorry. She had regrets, even if it had only been in afterlife. 

Seemed a bit too good to be true. 

"I shouldn't have said anything." Nico muttered to himself as Jason pulled up in front of the garage. Even from outside he could hear the horrible techno music still blasting. Nico exited the car without saying goodbye or waiting for an answer that Jason wasn't sure he was even capable of. 

-

To say the conversation had kept Jason up all night was perhaps a bit exaggerated but it had been hard to find any rest nonetheless. 

Truth was he wasn't really mad at Nico for saying anything. It just blindsided him. Of all people or ghosts he though would follow him around, his mother really hadn't been on that list. Jason had been pretty sure his whole life that she had hated him and he was fine with that. It was in the past and Lupa and Thalia had raised him good - even if his sister let him try eat a stapler as a kid. 

He should have said something immediately before the whole thing grew into that awkward silence Jason had to endure right now. Hazel had asked him to pick up her brother and meet up in the forest, where the joggers and their dog had found Zoe's corpse. 

Nico was dressed the same as yesterday, black t-shirt, dark jeans and simple sneakers. Only the worn aviator jacket he wore on his back was different. It was too big on Nico's thin frame and had the sleeves cover most of his hands. The young man was looking out of the window again, avoiding any eye contact whatsoever. 

Jason couldn't explain why he cared so much but he wanted to apologize for the day before. It really shouldn't concern him. Odd's were good that he would never have to see Nico di Angelo ever again after today, if they couldn't find anything new.  
Maybe he felt sorry for the guy after seeing him with his father, who was to put it mildly, a huge asshole. He told himself it wasn't because he thought Nico was attractive. Whatever his best friend Piper would have to say to that matter that wasn't it. Jason was a professional and he just wanted the issue out of the way. 

Yeah, right. 

"I'm sorry about yesterday.", he started. "It was just a bit of a shock." 

Nico turned his gaze to him and seemed to consider his words. "I guess we are even then. I won't talk about your mother, you won't ask about my father." 

Jason nodded and gave Nico a smile, that had him whip his head around towards the window again. 

They still had a long ride ahead of them.

"So." Jason cleared his throat. "What do you think of Percy?" He asked in a desperate attempt to get any conversation going. 

Nico scratched the back of his head. "What am I supposed to think of him? He doesn't believe me but he trusts my sister enough to indulge me." 

"Does he have anyone following him around?" 

"One person, Bob. It's different with him though. He isn't always with Percy." 

Jason remembered Bob. An intern who had recently died on the job. Percy still blamed himself for that.

"Maybe he is with Annabeth sometimes." Nico added thoughtfully. 

"Why would he be with Annabeth?" Jason raised on eyebrow. 

"She-" Nico started but stopped himself. "I probably shouldn't say." 

He frowned but didn't push it. Jason just endured the silence for the rest of the ride. 

-

Nico wasn't comfortable around these people. Hazel was his sister but right now she was a cop first, trying everything she could to solve this murder. Percy wasn't much better. He took every word out of Nico's mouth with a grain of salt and probably wouldn't believe anything he claimed if it weren't for the physical evidence on his wrist that there was something Percy couldn't explain without at least believing part of what he was saying.

It was interesting, for Percy to be the most sceptical, considering his girlfriend was a sensitive. Ghosts were drawn more to people who could take notice of them.

Annabeth knew about the presence of the ghosts in her morgue but she couldn't interact with them the way he could, or so was the impression Nico had gotten. He guessed that the reason she hadn't mentioned it to anybody was because she couldn't give any proof. Nico wished he had been smart enough to do the same when he had first noticed he wasn't normal. 

Jason seemed nice enough, but a lot of people did that on the first few looks. He had heard people describe his father as charming, he knew the living could be deceiving. While the dead were the core of pretty much all of his problems, they were also a much better company than anyone else. Usually at least. That asshole Minos that haunted him sometimes, could fuck off to hell for all Nico cared. 

But that wasn't important right now. He needed to use this curse to help that little girl. Zoe had reminded him of the ghost of Bianca. Probably because they died around the same age. Also Hazel had asked him and he couldn't fail the only person that had always stood behind him. 

So he stomped around the muddy forest wrapped in his favourite jacket to visit a make shift grave. 

Nico had asked for Hazel, Jason and Percy to wait by the cars. He really didn't want an audience for this. Wandering ghost where usually not the nicest, as they distanced themselves more and more from humanity. Arguing with thin air would make him look even crazier than they already thought he was. 

His steps stopped in front of a hole in the ground, surrounded by yellow police tape and took a deep breath of the cold, foggy air around him. It hadn't been that cold the day before, he wondered as he shivered a little bit. 

There weren't many ghosts around, Nico noticed sadly. It didn't seem likely that one of them stayed around this area long enough to witness anything. 

One guy in an old military uniform was riding on a horse, swinging around a rapier. A little boy ran past him, chased by a friendly barking dog, a few squirrels - some still living, some dead -, a woman with dripping wet hair, stumbling directionless around. 

He knelt down and shoot a quick look over his shoulder to the three detectives in the distance. They were talking, not paying any attention to Nico, thankfully. 

One of his hands reached out to touch the ground around the hole, took a bit of dirt and let it run through his fingers. Zoe definitely had been here, traces of her presence still lingered around, like faded perfume. Nothing that was helpful now though. 

"Are you here for Zoe? She is gone." A voice came from a tree. 

Nico stood up quickly and searched for the origin of the voice. A little girl jumped from the tree with an easy grace. She examined him like a prey and circled around him, never letting him out of her sight. Her aura was powerful, unlike most ghosts Nico usually dealt with, which meant she was old. Dead for a long time, long enough that she should have already left this world but she had chosen to stick around. Nico had no doubt that she had enough experience controlling her body that she could actually interact with objects and not just mediums.

"Do you know her?" He asked and made sure to keep his voice friendly and unthreatening. 

The girl nodded. "I am Artemis. I know everyone in this forest. She was here for a long time. Not a lot of people cross this path." 

She came closer and her expression turned sad. "I wished I could have gotten someone to find her sooner." 

"You alerted the dog of her presence." Nico concluded and Artemis nodded again. 

"Zoe was a nice person. She deserves something better. She deserves peace." 

"I agree. Did she ever tell you what happened to her? Did you see who buried her?" 

Artemis shook her head. "She did not remember but I saw the men who hid her. I couldn't follow him but I know his face." She said, old rage evident on her face. "He deserves the worst punishment for what he did to her." 

-

'I found someone who can describe the man who buried Zoe's body here' was all Nico said when he returned to them from his trip in the forest. Hazel had let out a relieved sigh and insisted that they drove back to the station immediately to let Nico give the description to their sketch artist. 

Nico seemed everything but enthusiastic about the idea but came without a fuss. 

Jason wondered all of two seconds what had Nico so worried about going to the station until he remembered that news spread like a wildfire in their workspace, so naturally everybody knew that they had consulted a medium on their case. And no matter how much Jason hoped to be wrong, he was quite sure that most of their colleagues would make fun of Nico.

Sure enough they couldn't set a foot inside before Clarisse voice sounded through the whole room. "Oh look, it's Jennifer Love Hewitt everybody! Better get an autograph." Followed by her disgusting laugh. Nico bore it with a lot more grace than Percy but then Clarisse had always been able to rub him the wrong way. 

"Yo, Clarisse! How about you shut the fuck up." He retorted. Hazel only shot her an evil glance and pushed her brother towards a side room where Rachel Dare, their sketch artist, was waiting for them. 

"Oh I am so scared. Is your little friend going to sick some poltergeists on me otherwise?" Clarisse laughed and got a highfive from one of her co-workers. 

Thankfully Percy ignored her this time.

"Jason.", Reyna Ramírez-Arellano, his boss stood in the door to her office and beckoned him over with a wave of her hand. "A word." Percy shot him a pitying look and then closed the door behind Hazel and Nico. 

Reyna already sat back at her desk when Jason entered her office and fell into the chair she offered to him. She had her professional mask on and looked anything but happy, with her hands folded on top of her tabletop. 

"Jason, is it true that you consulted a medium?" 

He nodded in response. "That is true. Hazel swears he is telling the truth about whatever he sees." 

Reyna sighed heavily and started to rub her temples with her fingers. "I don't have to tell you how this looks right? The press gets a hint of this and they are going to be crawling all over the place. We'll look ridiculous if this goes the public." 

"We don't want that either. We are keeping quiet about this and Nico himself said he is just helping us to get a lead. That's it." 

"How are you going to explain a description of the murderer without mentioning the source. Court is going to ask for that." 

"So we find some proof or get a confession and say the witness wants to remain anonymous." 

Reyna pressed her lips into a thin line and shook her head gently. "I am not happy with this. Nico is a good kid but-" She didn't elaborate and she didn't need to. Jason knew how she felt about it. He still wasn't sure why he had taken to the whole talking to ghosts thing so easily. (No Piper, that had nothing to do with him being attractive, thank you very much.)

His captain let out a groan. "Find something solid, alright? Be careful." She said finally and dismissed him. Jason took what he could get.

-

"Are you sure that is the man she saw?" Percy was asking Nico when Jason joined them in the room. Rachel raised her hand in greeting at him, her pencil still between her fingers. Her clothes were covered in paint stains as usual, he was pretty sure there was even one on her neck but it was hard to tell without leaning into her personal space. 

Nico seemed to listen to the ghost and then he nodded. "She is sure. This man carried Zoe into the forest and buried her." 

Percy turned the painting in his hands and frowned at it. 

"What's wrong?" Jason asked finally. 

"It's Zoe's father. The one guy we didn't even consider because he has an alibi, according to the files." Percy told him and pressed the paper into his hand. 

He had to admit that Percy was right. The man on the picture was definitely Mr. Atlas Nightshade. The police officer who had worked on the case twenty years ago hadn't even listed him as a suspect. Jason could kick himself, it was their mistake. They should have rechecked everything without simply dismissing it. 

"Do you think the officer might have been paid by Atlas?" Hazel inquired and Jason had to agree silently. It seemed most likely. Too bad they couldn't interrogate said officer, he had been send into retirement a few years after the disappearance and then left the country to live in some forest in Europe. 

"So what are you going to do now?" Nico asked them and Jason caught himself flinching in surprise. He had almost forgotten that Nico was still in the room with them, the young man nearly blend into the shadows. 

"We are going to pay Mr. Nightshade a visit." Percy replied, anger sounding foreign in his voice.

-

"Go with them." Artemis ordered, still standing next to his chair, right after Hazel, Percy and Jason had left the room to prepare themselves for their upcoming task. 

"Why should I? My work here is done." Nico replied, ignoring Rachel's confusion that stopped her from packing up her art supplies. 

Artemis clicked her tongue. She was way to grown up for someone who had the appearance of a 9 year old. "It is easier for me to follow you than them and I want to witness the downfall of this monster." 

"Sorry, you will have to put up with the hardship then." He bid Rachel goodbye, who still looked confused but had been polite enough to him. The way out of the police station was short due to him all but running out to ignore most of the snide comments thrown at him. The keys to Hazel's car, which she had given him to drive himself home, weighed heavy in his jacket pocket.

"He is dangerous." Artemis said gravely. 

"As is every monster." His grip tightened around the keys. Hard enough to hurt. 

"You could help them." 

"I already helped them." 

Artemis stepped right into his view, giving Nico the sternest look he had ever seen on a child. 

"You can help them even more." 

He clenched his jaw and looked away. Hazel, Jason and Percy exited the police station and jogged over to Jason's car, taking off in a such a hurry that they didn't even see him. 

In his thoughts he saw a father who hated his own child enough to kill her, who didn't have enough remorse about what he had done to confess or give her a proper burial. Who dumped her dead body somewhere in the woods and reported her missing. He thought about Jason's mother who didn't want to put up with a second child and just gave him away without making contact with him until after her death. 

And Nico thought about his own father, who had always called Bianca his favourite child. Who had affair's with multiple women and didn't care. Who had called him useless, a freak, a failure all his life. 

Artemis looked at him expectant as he made his decision. 

-

"Please Annabeth. It will only take a second." Nico begged the blonde woman behind the desk

"No. You can't just come in here and demand to see a victim of a running murder investigation. There are protocols." She told him sternly and lowered her gaze back onto the papers she had been filling out prior to his arrival. 

"This is something I have to do. Zoe's father might not confess if I can't - I don't know - scare him by confronting him with what he did from his daughter's point of view." He sounded manic even to his own ears, something that probably didn't impress her in the slightest. 

Annabeth sat down her pen with more force than necessary. "Even if you are correct, I though you said Zoe doesn't remember anything?", she crossed her arms over her chest. 

"Artemis is pretty sure that she lied to protect her father." Nico had to admit that it sounded pretty thin aloud. 

She seemed to think so too, because Annabeth only raised an eyebrow at him. But there was also something else of her face. Something Nico recognized well. So he followed his intuition. 

"I know you can hear them too. Every time you work on them you can hear them, can't you?" Annabeth's eyes widened in shock and her arms unfolded. "You heard every word she said and you know I'm right." 

She pushed away from her desk. "I am so gonna get in trouble for this.", she muttered under her breath and ushered him into the next room.

-

Jason hadn't wanted to believe that Atlas Nightshade was a bad person. He thought, maybe the man was ill, maybe it had been an accident and he had been too scared to do anything when he hurt his child. 

But when he actually met him, it was hard to think anything positive about him. 

He had some kind of serial killer vibe around him and Jason had met actual serial killers. 

The man was in his fifties but didn't look it with his slight stubble across his jaw, that only had hints of grey hair in it and dressed in casual jeans and a simple t-shirt. He had let them into his house without a fuss and offered them some water in his kitchen. Nothing that should make Jason uneasy around anyone but with him it still did. Maybe it was just the knowledge that he had killed his own daughter. 

"So you found the person who did this to her?", he asked, more curious than sad. 

"We are still working on it. Right now we want to double check everything in the old report." Percy told the man, calm and collected. They didn't want to tip off the guy. What they needed was a confession. 

Hazel pulled a recording device from her jacketpocket and showed it to Mr. Nightshade. "Do you mind if we record this conversation?" She asked him with the sweetest voice she could manage. 

"Of course not." Atlas replied. His eyes stared at the device as Hazel sat it between them on the table. 

"Can you tell us what you did the night your daughter disappeared?" Percy 

"I am not sure." Atlas cradled his glass in his hands and frowned. "That was twenty years ago, excuse my memory for being a little foggy." He gave them a slight grin that gave Jason the creeps. 

He tuned out the conversation and focused on Atlas' expressions instead. Percy covered up the basic questions anyway. Nothing they really cared about but they wanted Atlas to fall in a false sense of security so that he might give himself away. 

Whatever he answered, his face seemed to say the opposite. For someone who supposedly missed his daughter, he sure didn't seem to bothered anymore. His eyes seemed to smile while his mouth was turned downwards. There was not that bone deep resignation and sadness Jason had seen in parents who had actually loved their children. Everything about Atlas was off, like someone had arranged every furniture in your home an inch to the left - you couldn't really tell but everything felt weird. 

A knock on the door stopped whatever Atlas had been saying. Jason stopped him before he could stand up. "Let me." The man looked not too happy about that but nodded and sat back down. 

Jason was quite glad to leave the room. He left the kitchen to enter the dark narrow hallway. Not even the midday sun had been able to make the house appear any less depressingly gloomy.

He wondered who might come to visit Atlas, someone so adverse. In his mind he could even see postmen avoid the creepy looking house like the plague. Jason had to shake his head at his thoughts. Instead he focused on opening the front door and to get rid of whoever was in front of it. 

Of course he didn't expect for Nico to be there.

-

Jason looked a bit shocked but Nico really didn't have time for this right now. 

"I'm here to help." He said and pushed past Jason into the house but the blonde stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. Nico felt his body tense up under the unexpected touch but didn't shrug it off like he usually would. 

"Are you sure about this?" Jason looked at him with worry in his eyes. 

Nico took a deep breath. Truth was he wasn't sure about it. Every fibre in his body screamed at him not to talk about what Zoe had described him. But then he really didn't have a choice. So he gave Jason a nod and let the blonde lead him to the kitchen to face Zoe's murderer. 

Atlas looked up from where he had been focused on Percy during their conversation. "Who are you?" He asked confused with an underlying anger. 

"Doesn't matter. I know who you are and I know what you did." 

Atlas frowned. "I don't understand." 

His heart was pounding, threatening to jump out of his chest. Artemis was at his back suddenly. A comforting presence if nothing else. 

"She told me everything. You poisoned her food. Zoe was so scared. She felt ill and she reached out for you and you slapped her hand away." 

Everyone's eyes were on Atlas as the man stood up and turned around to his kitchen counter.

"She fell on the floor and scrapped her knees on the floor. You though she had died right there but she didn't. She remembers everything. How you carried her to your car and put her in the trunk. She was awake the whole time, terrified out of her mind." Even from where he stood he could see Atlas shoulders tremble but he went on. 

"The monster deserves this pain." Artemis encouraged him. 

"She kept trying to scream when you put her in the hole in the ground but you wouldn't hear. She suffocated and choked on the dirt." 

Hazel pressed her fist against her mouth and squeezed her eyes shut and both Jason and Percy looked sick to the stomach. 

Atlas trembling grew stronger and stronger until they could hear him laugh. 

"So what?" He asked, voice icy. Slowly he turned, hand still braced on the counter behind him. "I hated her. I hated that child. I never wanted her. Her whore mother wanted children and what does she do? She dumped me with that fucking kid. And then no one would stop telling me how great she was. How proud I must be. I wasn't proud at all. I hated that kid and I would do it again because she fucking deserved it. How dare she ruin my life like this!" Atlas screamed. Hazel and Percy got up from their seats, hands inching to their sidearm but Atlas noticed the movement. 

"Who do you think you are!" He threw a plate, he'd grabbed from the counter, at the three of them and took a knife. "You will never tell anyone about this again, you little bastard!" He attacked Nico, knife raised like a sword. 

He barely managed to bring up his arms to protect his face. Hazel saw red while Percy and Jason drew their guns. She used her chair to climb onto the table between them and jumped from the high ground onto Atlas back, slamming him into the ground. The knife skittered on the floor out of his hand, which Hazel immediately grabbed to cuff behind his back. "Mr. Atlas Nightshade, you are under arrest for the murder of Zoe Nightshade. You have the right to remain silent.", she snapped the cuffs shut viciously and tugged sharply at them with every sentence as she read him his rights. 

It was all over so fast that it left Nico feeling winded. 

Jason tucked away his gun, letting Percy call for backup, and walk over to him.

"Are you alright?", he asked and shot a look to Nico's arm. 

Nico nodded before looking down. "Yeah, I'm fin- oh gods, i'm bleeding." There was a deep cut on his right arm, oozing blood at an alarming rate. "Oh my gods. Fuck." He couldn't even look at it without feeling nauseous. 

Jason grinned at him weakly. "Are you afraid of blood?" He raised one damn perfectly curved eyebrow as if he couldn't believe it. 

"That's perfectly normal, thank you very much." Nico snapped back. 

Jason chuckled to himself and pushed Nico out of the kitchen towards the stairs in the hallway where he got him to sit down. "Wait here." He said. 

A few moments later, that Nico spend very pointly not looking at his arm, Jason returned with a couple of towels in his hand. 

He gently pried the deathgrip Nico had over his wound off and wrapped his arm with the towel. "You are not afraid of ghosts and dead people but of blood. It's just funny." He admitted, still grinning. Jason took Nico's bloody hand and cleaned it off as best as he could with another towel. 

"I see ghosts and dead people almost every day. I don't see my blood everyday." Nico muttered annoyed but thanked Jason quietly for his help. 

The blonde sat down next to him. In the distance they could already hear the police sirens.

"So I guess we won't see each other tomorrow then." Jason mused, sounding sad which made Nico look at him and frown. 

Jason looked like he wanted to say something else, do something else but stopped himself every time. So Nico took another deep breath and did the second most terrifying thing he could think of.

"So there is a movie I want to see this weekend. Want to come with me?" He asked, not looking at the blondes reaction.

Jason blinked dumbly at him. "Yeah of course. Sounds awesome." 

Nico gave him a look out of the corner of his eye. "Good. I could use a few more friends, I think." 

"Friends. Right." Jason agreed but didn't sound happy about it. Nico couldn't imagine why. "You know your arm is going to need stitches probably, right?" 

Nico just groaned in response and vowed silently to never help the fucking police ever again.

"This is all your fault, Artemis." 

"You bought this upon yourself, boy." She laughed at him and disappeared.


End file.
